


The First Day

by Brolinismerthur



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-18
Updated: 2013-03-18
Packaged: 2017-12-05 16:44:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/725546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brolinismerthur/pseuds/Brolinismerthur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today is the first day of the semester and Arthur Pendragon feels nothing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Day

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [This gifset made me do it](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/18724) by ancienttale. 



~*~*~*~  
Today is the first day of the semester and Arthur Pendragon feels nothing.

~*~  
He walks into the room just as a very large man clears his throat, obviously trying to get the class under control.   
"Alright everyone, welcome to Creative Writing 100," says the shy giant.   
Arthur takes the empty seat toward the front of class - it's the only one open. _Bloody stupid alarm clock._    
"I'm Percival McKnight and I'll be your Professor this semester," he states with a smile.   
Arthur can literally hear every girl in the room sigh dreamily. And he can't blame them. I mean, the guy is tall, buff and  _hawt._  Arthur couldn't help but oogle him as well; without being so completely obvious, of course.    
  
"I'd like to start off with something simple, today," says Professor McHotty. "An ice breaker, some call it." The man flashes a smile that could blind the sun, and queue the giggles.   
They are instructed to count off by eights - so that every one who counts off as number One will be grouped with other Ones and those who count off as Two will be group with the other Twos and so on, and so forth. 

"One," sighs the petite brunette in the front row, blinking heavily at the Professor.

"Two," a boy with flaming orange hair grunts.

"Three," whispers the girl in front of Arthur.

"Four," Arthur nods.

The rows continue and Arthur makes sure to keep note of his fellow Fours.

"Four," says a sweet looking girl, her brown curls bobbing as she turns to smile at Arthur, he smiles back.

Arthur counts down the rows, ahead of the counters, to see who will be the Fours in his group.

 

That's when he's met with a pair of sparkling blue eyes, under a mop of black hair, surrounded by the biggest ears he's ever seen.

The boy smiles at him, obviously doing the same little trick.

Arthur is a bit taken aback by that smile. All dimples and plump lips. He recovers himself and manages a quick nod, turning to face the front of the room again.

He can feel the boys eyes on him as he hears, "Four." Arthur has to restrain himself from turning to look at the way those lips form the word. He tries a slide glance, but Professor McKnight calls their attention.

"Okay guys, I trust you can make your own way toward your groups?"

 

First impressions aren't Arthur's strong suit. His father raised him to be strong and stiff for all greetings, but that was meant for business affairs, not first-day-of-uni-hi-I'm-Arthur-Pendragon-please-be-my-friend ice breakers. 

His palms start to sweat and his books slip in his grip as he heads for the corner where the cheerful girl and sexiest man Arthur has ever seen,  _and my god does he needs to stop thinking things like that before his pants become two sizes too tight._

__  
  


"Hi," the brown beauty extends a hand, smiling, "I'm Gwen."

"Arthur," he shakes her hand and smile and nods. She's cute. Her freckles and big brown eyes make her the epitome of sweet.

"And I'm Merlin," the boy wraps his long, slender fingers around Arthur's sweaty ones. The corner of his eyes crinkle as his smile widens.

He stiffens. Another nod.

He sets his stuff down, and sits, shaking his head at himself,  _nice going Pendragon, way to impress._

_~*~_

Merlin, an English major on scholarship, sits at the back of the small room, allowing his eyes to scan the students around him. He doesn't know any of them, all his friends are back home. They all gather in their little cliques and chat away before the professor shows up.  _Oh. My. God. Is_ that  _their professor?_

He almost has to duck through the door he's so tall. And buff, as wide as the frame. And that shy smile, like a sweet puppy. And buff, did he mention buff?

 _I'd like to climb him like a tree_.

The beautiful giant of a man clears his throat, demanding all eyes on him, and hell if anyone is looking anywhere  _but_  him. 

"Alright everyone, welcome to Creative Writing 100," he smiles. 

Merlin's eyes flick to the hot, blond boy,  _er, well, man,_  who comes in a few minutes late and snags the last seat. 

_Is there something in the water over here or? Because my God, he's hot as well._

"I'm Percival McKnight," Merlin focuses back on Professor McHotty, "and I'll be your professor this semester." And if the class didn't jizz their pants before, that smile of his sure has them coming now.

 

As much as Merlin  _loathes_ ice breakers, when he counts down the rows and learns that  _he_  will be in a group with  _Hot Blond Man_ , well, he's never been more thankful for them in his life.

He must be staring because HBM is looking at him.  _Don't be such a dollophead, Emrys! Act cool._ Merlin smiles, trying very hard not to scare the guy,  _bugger._ He turned away. Sure, he nodded, but he was just being polite, I mean, his eyes practically fell out of his head at the sight of Merlin staring at him."Four."  _He's probably a homophobe,_ he thinks, still looking at the back of HBM's head. And, well, doesn't that just suck balls. Pun totally intended. 

 

"Okay guys, I trust you can make your own way toward your groups?"

There's shuffling and awkward greetings all around him. He shifts in his seat to try and find the adorable looking girl who called 'Four' before him. Finally, he stands and - being a few inches taller than everyone else - he spots her as she makes her way towards him. HBM seems to be stuck in traffic on his end of the room.

"Hiya, I'm Merlin," he smiles at her as she takes a seat next to him.

"I'm Gwen," she beams. "You're a Four, right? I mean, I not that I wasn't paying attention, I  _was_ , I just, um," she bites her lip, stopping herself from rambling.

"You're adorable," Merlin chuckles. "I think we're going to be fast friends." She smiles at that, just as HBM walks up to them.

"Hi, I'm Gwen," she offers her hand to the beautiful blond, her smiling, dazzling and her eyes go all doe-eyed. 

 _Pleasebegaypleasebegay_ please _begay,_ Merlin prays as Gwen, as adorable and sweet as she is, tries to take his man.

"Arthur," HBM nods.  _Arthur, such a strong name. Matches his arms._

"And I'm Merlin," Merlin grabs his hand before he can retreat. They're sweaty and warm, but soft and fit perfectly in Merlin's.

He watches Arthur carefully as he nods again and slides into his seat shaking his head, almost as if he's reprimanding himself.

 

"I've put up a few questions I'd like you all to discuss for the next 15 minutes or so. Be prepared to present your information to the class," Professor McKnight instructs.

The prompt and questions are:

You are a group of survivors. Your home planet was destroyed by your enemy. You seek revenge. 

1\. Describe your home planet.

2\. Who are your enemies?

3\. What are your plans of attack?

 

They all blink at each other. 

"So," Gwen's brow is furrowed, "like aliens?"

"I guess," Arthur shrugs.

"Maybe something like Doctor Who?" Merlin asks excitedly.  _This is totally my turf._

"Don't tell me you're a Whovian,  _Mer_ lin," Arthur drones.

"What if I am?" Merlin challenges.  _Maybe he has a thing for skinny nerds??_

"Well then, you're an even bigger nerd than I imagined," he laughs.

 _Or not. And what the_ fuck _is that supposed to mean?_

Merlin can feel his anger splotch his skin red. "And you're an even bigger  _prat_  than I imagined." 

Arthur scoffs. "Still not bigger than your ears."

"Boys! Boys! Let's not get off on wrong foot, now," Gwen tries to smooth.

Arthur crosses his arms around his chest and sticks his nose up in the air,  _like the prat he is._

Gwen looks at Merlin with a concerned look on her face. Then glares at Arthur until he meets her eye.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, Merlin," Arthur offers as an apology, not meeting Merlin's eyes. "Or your ears."

Gwen smiles at him and looks at Merlin, encouragingly.

He glares at Arthur, but accepts the apology.  _God Arthur's such a massive_ twatwaffle.  _How do I even find him attractive?!_

"Good," she nods, as if she finally got two war heads to reach a peace treaty. "Now let's plan our revenge." 

~*~

Arthur reads the prompt and questions in silence along with the rest of the class. He arches an eyebrow as his fellow group members blink at each other.

"So, like aliens?" Gwen asks.

"I guess," he shrugs.  _Honestly, what kind of ice breaker is this anyway?_

"Maybe something like Doctor Who?" Merlin is practically vibrating with glee in his seat and Arthur can't help but categorize him as a total geek.

"Don't tell me you're a Whovian,  _Mer_ lin," he laughs.  Morgana would be proud ofhim for using the fandom term correctly.

"What if I am?" Merlin narrows his eyes at Arthur.

"Well then, you're an even bigger nerd than I imagined." Seriously, Arthur pinned him as a geek, but jez, the guy almost came in his pants at the thought of incorporating the TARDIS in there little fictional game. 

"And you're an even bigger  _prat_  than I imagined." 

Arthur scoffs, surprised at how angry Merlin has become, red up to his ears.

"Still not bigger than your ears."  _There, that'll put him in his place._

"Boys! Boys! Let's not get off on the wrong foot, now," Gwen puts her hands up in front of her, trying to calm them down.

If Merlin wants to be a  _complete arsehole_ , then two can play that game. He crosses his arms and looks away, pointedly.

But..then again...Arthur  _might_  have started the whole thing. 

He can feel Gwen's hot glare. 

_He didn't mean to hurt Merlin's feelings. He was just joking for god sake. He was actually going to mention that Morgana likes the show too and possibly ask Merlin if he could host a marathon and invite Arthur and maybe it would end up being a delicious snogfest._

He huffs out a sigh, and looks up at Gwen.

He glances back down at the table in front of Merlin, "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, Merlin." And when that doesn't work, "Or your ears."

He looks at Gwen again, as if asking her if his apology was good enough, and she smiles. It's Merlin's turn to be burned under her gaze, and when he looks up, she gives him a delicate look. 

"S'alright." Is all he gets, along with a hard glare.

"Good," she nods. "Now let's plan our revenge."

 

"Merlin?" Arthur asks, tentatively.

Merlin looks up at Arthur through his lashes.  _And dammit, those fucking eyelashes are like a mile long_. 

Arthur has to swallow the lump in his throat just to say his next sentence. "Do you want to add anything Doctor Who?"  _Maybe? Like I can the Doctor and you can be Rose and we can snog and run around London together?_

"Well," Merlin's smile is almost cheeky. "I was thinking we could have the Cybermen as our enemy. With my computer skills, I figure I could be the one to 'delete' them." He laughs at his own joke and Gwen just smiles at him. 

Arthur can't help but smile back, his laugh is a deep chuckle and it wraps around Arthur like a warm blanket. 

"Not to discourage your thinking, Merlin," Gwen starts, placing a hand on his. "But, that's kinda already been done?" They can tell she doesn't want to hurt Merlin's feelings by passing up his idea, if her little wince is enough to go by. "It's just that, you know. There was a whole episode on it...and I just don't want Professor McKnight to think that we...um.. plagiarized?" Another wince.

"Yeah," Merlin shrugs.

"Right well, how about we're the last survivors on a floating ship in space?" Arthur offers, and when brown and blue eyes blink excitedly at him, he continues. "Yeah, like, Gwen, you could be the Captain. And Merlin, you could be the Pilot. And I could be-"

"The Guns." Merlin finishes for him, licking his lips and pointedly staring at his arms. And fuck, if that didn't send a twitch straight to his cock.

"Yeah!" Gwen exclaims, clapping her hands. She pulls out a pen and paper and beings jotting it all down. He looks at her fondly, like she's an adorable little animal.

But then his attention is back on Merlin and they stare at each other. Arthur, wanting to jump across the desk and bite those lusciously pink lips and whatever Merlin was thinking.

"So who's our enemy? And what was our home like?" She asks, biting the bottom of her pen.

"Your turn Merlin," Arthur offers.

~*~

Arthur calls his name. But he's still a tad bit angry about what just happened and looks up at Arthur, not moving his head. He waits for Arthur to respond, watching his Adam's apple bob. 

"Do you want to add anything Doctor Who?" he asks. 

Merlin really couldn't care less anymore. But he wants to see what Arthur will say. 

 _Sure, let's play this game, Arthur._ "Well," he grins devilishly on purpose.  "I was thinking we could have the Cybermen as our enemy. With my computer skills, I figure I could be the one to 'delete' them."  _Oh man, I'm clever. Oh! There I go again!_ And he bursts out laughing at his own stupid joke.  _Fuck. I was supposed to be being cheeky!_ He scolds himself, but then, Arthur smiles and he melts a bit.

Gwen declines his idea in the sweetest way.  _Oh, she's trying so hard not to hurt my feelings, precious lamb._

"Yeah," he shrugs, smiling that the way she basically sugar coated a 'that's a stupid fucking idea, its not happening,' answer.

And then Arthur has a brilliant idea. Merlin is almost sad  _he_  didn't come up with it.

Where Gwen is Captain and he is Pilot and Arthur is "The Guns." He couldn't help it. He saw the opportunity and took it. Arthur smiles and  _did he just shiver? No, he couldn't have...or did he? Oh fuck. Now he's looking at me!_ Merlin licks his lips out of nervous habit and averts his eyes to Arthur's amazingly fit arms.

"Yeah!" He hears Gwen shout and she can see that she's started writing it all down. But, Arthur is looking at him.  _Still_  looking at him, and all he can do is look back.

"So who's our enemy and what was our home like?" She looks up at Arthur, biting her pen. 

_No, she is not playing innocent school girl with him, is she?_

"Your turn, Merlin."

 

"Oh, erm, okay," Merlin was caught off guard. He was expecting Arthur to ask Gwen, seeing as she is practically drooling over him.  _No, she's not really. You just need an outlet. Stop being so mean to poor Gwen! She's nice AND SHE DOESN'T KNOW YOU'RE GAY AND IN LOVE WITH THE MAN SHE'S FLIRTING WITH. Ugh. Alright, focus, Emrys._

"Well, going off of what you said, Arthur," he begins, "Our home could have been the first livable outer space station?" He looks at the others for approval to keep going and is met with interested stares. 

"The S.S. Avalon. Our enemies were here, on Earth. They were jealous of our advance technology and ability to sustain life in outer space. We were going to share our advancement with the world as soon as we knew were able to! But the World thought we were being greedy and keeping all of our knowledge to ourselves. So they waged a war on us. We were out numbered, of course. The only floating man made sphere of life, was no match for attack missals from Earth. We were one of the few groups who were part of the Avalon Knights. (We were called that because our space suits looked like armor). We went out into battle, even though we knew there was no chance of survival. As we fought, Avalon perished below us. We went to radio our fellow Knights, but none survived. The World headed back to earth in celebration, but little did they know, we were getting ready for an attack of our own."

Merlin looks at Arthur and Gwen. They are staring at him, mouths open and bug-eyed.

"Holy shit, mate," Arthur breathes. "That was bloody brilliant!" Hes smiling wide and laughing.

"That was amazing!" Gwen exclaims. "Where did that come from, Merlin?"

He shrugs, should he confess that he's a bit of a fanfic author?

"I'm an English major, remember?"

~*~

 _Holy fuck._ Arthur is captivated. By the story, yes, but also by the way Merlin practically loses himself in it. His eyes are sparkling and he's practicably glowing with the creative aura around him. Arthur wants to bottle it up and keep it. To hold it in his palms and watch the colors dance around in the bottle. He doesn't want Merlin to stop talking.  He never wants to take his eyes away from Merlin.

He's beautiful when he talks. When he tells stories. When he  _breathes._ Everything about him, Arthur wants to touch and feel and taste and lick. He wants to get tangled up in Merlin's words. 

He forgets where he is, who he's with, what he's supposed to be doing. All he knows is Merlin. All he hears are Merlin's words. Completely engrossed in Merlin.

And when he's done speaking, its like all the air is sucked out Arthur. Everything is fuzzy and when he finally recovers, Merlin is smiling back at him.

"Holy shit, mate," he breathes. Unable to form proper sentences. "That was bloody brilliant!" He can't help but laugh. 

"That was amazing!" Gwen offers. "Where did that come from, Merlin?" She asks him.

Merlin's cheeks flush a bit and says, "I'm an English major, remember?"

 

They laugh, but are soon called to attention by Professor McKnight.

"Alright, alright," he shushes everyone. "Who's ready to present?"

~*~

After everyone presents their Revenge Plans, class is dismissed.

The three of them pack up.

"Do either of you want to grab some lunch?" Merlin asks.

"Oh, Merlin," Gwen gives him an apologetic look. "I can't I have another class right after this."

"Oh, alright then," he smiles at her.

"But I'll see you next time, yeah? Here! Give me your number," she holds her phone out to him.

He hurriedly enters his contact information and hands it back. Then she thrusts it at Arthur, who does the same.

She smiles at them and waves as she leaves for her next class.

"I'm free."

Merlin damn near drops his bag at the silkiness of Arthur's tone. 

"Are you always, this clumsy?" Arthur quips.

Merlin huffs out a laugh and swallows.

"So?" Arthur meets his eyes. "Lunch?"

 "Yeah, sure. That'd be great. Let's do that," Merlin nods, looking down at his shoes.  _Why is he so nervous? This_ was  _his intention after all. To get Arthur alone..._

"Alright, then," Arthur zips up his backpack. "How about pizza?" He smiles at Merlin and throws his bag over his shoulder.

"Yeah, pizza," Merlin fumbles with the clasp on his messenger bag, and Arthur places his hands on his, helping him.

"What would you do with out me, Merlin?" He musses, shaking his head and wrapping his arm around Merlin's shoulders, guiding him toward the door.

And suddenly, Merlin can't think of a life  _without_  Arthur in it. 

~*~

Merlin asks if they want to have lunch. He's just about to say,  _Yes, I want to have more than lunch with you,_ when-

"Oh, Merlin," Gwen coos.  "I can't I have another class right after this."

"Oh, alright then," Merlin smiles as her, almost as if he's disappointed.  _Shit, does he fancy her?_   _Fuckfuckfuck_ fuck.

He remains silent, quietly packing his things as Gwen asks for his phone number. 

_Welp, that's just my luck. I finally meet a guy I'd be willing to come out with and he's bloody straight. or...is he? Argh! How do you even tell if a guy is straight or gay now days?!_

He's shoving his last notepad into his backpack when there's a phone shoved in his hand. "Your's too," Gwen dimples.

He punches in his number, chancing a quick glance at Merlin.

She leaves with a wave and Arthur thinks,  _fuck it, let's just see what happens, yeah?_

"I'm free," he says, still not sure if the invitation is on the table. And Merlin loses his grip on his open messenger bag, then laughs at himself.

"Are you always this clumsy?" Arthur chuckles.

He watches Merlin's Adam's apple as he swallows.

"So? Lunch?"

"Yeah, sure. That'd be great. Let's do that," Merlin says, looking at his shoes.  _Is he nervous to be alone with me?_

"Alright then, how about pizza?"

Then Merlin's hands can't even function with his clasp, so Arthur instinctively reaches out and helps him.

Their hands brush, the warmth of Merlin's hands on his spreads through his body like wildfire. He manages to do the clasp, only just.

"What would you do with out me, Merlin?" He chuckles unevenly, swallowing down his nerves. 

 _Is his body on autopilot or something?_  Because he's wrapping his arm around Merlin's thin shoulders and pressing him against his side.

After the initial shock of the action, Arthur becomes comfortable with it. It seems right and  _real._

He guides them to the door and lets out a happy sigh.

He's only just met him, but Arthur can't see his life without Merlin in it.

~*~

Today is the first day of the semester and Arthur Pendragon feels  _alive_.

~*~*~*~


End file.
